Cellulosic material provides an attractive platform for generating alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. The conversion of cellulosic material (e.g., from lignocellulosic feedstock) into Biofuels has the advantages of the ready availability of large amounts of feedstock, the desirability of avoiding burning or land filling the materials, and the cleanliness of the Biofuels (such as ethanol). Wood, agricultural residues, herbaceous crops, and municipal solid wastes have been considered as feedstocks for Biofuel production. Once the cellulosic material is converted to fermentable sugars, e.g., glucose, the fermentable sugars are may be fermented by yeast into Biofuel, such as ethanol.
Chemical and physical pretreatment of lignocellulose (a cellulosic material from plant cell walls containing lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose in a mixed matrix) to disrupt plant cell wall components and permit improved access of cellulosic enzymes is a common method of increasing saccharification yields. However, the harsh conditions of pretreatment may also generate functional groups within the lignin structure that result in undesirable interactions between lignin and cellulosic enzymes, rendering the yields of saccharification suboptimal.
Soudham et al., 2011, Journal of Biotechnology 155: 244-250 concerns improving enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulosic substrates in the presence of pretreated liquid using reducing agents.
It would be an advantage in the art to improve methods of hydrolyzing pretreated cellulosic material.